


A Mortal Realization

by americanhoney913



Series: Inktober 2019 [19]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Doctor Who AU, F/F, Inktober 2019, day 22
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-12-31 21:09:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/americanhoney913/pseuds/americanhoney913
Summary: InktoberDay 21: GhostCharlotte's realizing that she might just be a ghost to the Doctor as she watches the woman walk out onto the remains of Earth.





	A Mortal Realization

**Author's Note:**

> Becky and the Doctor have the same energy, so she's the Doctor.
> 
> Dialogue taken from Doctor Who 7.09 "Hide"

“We’re going  _ always _ ,” the Doctor responds to Charlotte's question of where they're going, as she spins around, hitting the console twice, and laughing at her own joke. Her red hair is pulled up in a ponytail--  _ “It looks more like a horse’s tail than a ponytail. Humans are weird.” _ \-- and she’s wearing her usual outfit. A long leather trench coat over black leather pants, a black corset with straps accentuates her curves-- “ _ I’ve got curves now, Charlie. O’course I’m gonna show ‘em off.” _ \-- and Charlotte really couldn’t argue. She hadn’t met the Doctor during her previous face, but she remembers the woman rambling on and on about how her boobs were bigger and she had muscles now and she was finally ginger. This last point has always been something the Doctor loves to talk about. Finally being ginger.

The Doctor gives her a tongue-in-cheek smile as she walks backward out of the room. Charlotte rolls her eyes at the alien before she turns back the monitor. The TARDIS hums around her, the sound soothing as she takes a seat on the purple sofa from the Doctor’s thirteenth face. “She’s such a dork, isn’t she?”

The TARDIS makes a bonging noise as if she’s joining in on the laughter. Charlotte sighs and leans her arm against the edge of the sofa and scans the room. She’d been told that the circular patterns are reminiscent of previous TARDIS console rooms, but this one has a steampunk feel. The circles look like gears and everything is a bronze and silver with hints of blue.

“How do I look?” The Doctor’s voice makes Charlotte look up. She’s wearing the ridiculous orange spacesuit, the outfit hanging loosely off of her. She looks like she’s swimming in it. “I think it brings out my hair.”

Charlotte wrinkles her nose. “That’s not how the quote goes, but uh, it makes my eyes hurt.”

The alien huffs and crosses her arms. She storms past Charlotte, pouting, to the door of the TARDIS. The impossible ship makes the same laughing noise and Charlotte can’t help but join in.

“What are you doing anyway?” Charlotte asks as she stands up and heads towards the Doctor. “Especially if you’re wearing that.”

“Dangerous radiation outside, even for a Time Lord.” The Doctor shrugs. “You’ll burn up if you step outside.”

“Okay, but  _ why _ are you wearing it?”

“Oh, well, we haven’t moved in space, but in time.” She gestures to the monitor, which shows a giant sun and craggy rocks, molten lava crawling across the landscape. “Welcome to the beginning of Earth! Lovely time, if ya like the heat. Silurians would love it.” At Charlotte’s raised eyebrow, she continues. “Great race of reptilian humanoids. They live underground. One of my good friends is a Silurian.” She shakes her head. “Anyway, I figured that if we’re chasing something that’s trapped in time, it also would only move in space and not time. Ed and Lorraine are looking for a ghost. I’m going to find this time traveler. Maybe we can save them. And then no more ghost.” She makes a  _ poof _ motion with her hands.

Becky leaves with a two-finger salute and a smile under the helmet of the spacesuit, looking ridiculous as she flounces out to stand on proto-Earth without a thought.

* * *

The Doctor steps back into the room after finishing her series of pictures. Charlotte had followed her when she’d gone out in more habitable time periods, before she’d left the human inside to walk across Earth’s surface, probably the last person to do so, as it dies. No humans left, no creatures can stand the blazing heat of the supermassive sun, which is almost ready to swallow the Earth.

She steps inside and dusts herself off, ignoring the TARDIS’ wine of indignation at her for getting the floors dirty. The Doctor looks up to find Charlotte standing in front of the monitor, tears beading in her eyes and her thumb against her teeth.

“What’s wrong?” the Doctor asks as she comes to stand in front of the blonde. She’s still wearing that ridiculous suit, but Charlotte can’t tear her eyes away from the monitor. “Did the TARDIS say something to you?” She hits the console and the TARDIS responds with an angry bong. The Doctor can hear the ship yelling at him telepathically in his mind. “Are you being mean?”

Charlotte shook her head, wiping a tear from her eye. “No, it’s not that. “The blonde swings the console towards her and she stops it, looking at the death landscape. “Have we just watched the entire life cycle of Earth, birth to death? And you’re okay with that?”

The Doctor nods as she fiddles with the strap of the camera. “M’yes.”

“How can you be?” Charlotte asks, almost breathless.

“The TARDIS. She’s time. We… wibbly Vortex. And so on.” The Doctor waves her hand in a dismissive gesture. After traveling through all of time and space, she doesn’t mind living the life cycle of a planet in maybe an hour or less.

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Okay. Some help. Context. Cheatsheet… something?” The Doctor wrings her hands nervously, looking between Charlotte and the video of outside.

“I mean,” Charlotte scoffs, “one minute you’re in 1974, talking to Ed and Lorraine about the Amityville ghosts, but all you have to do is open your eyes and talk to whoever’s standing there.” The blonde turns away, wrapping her arms around herself, as if trying to hold herself together. “To you, I haven’t been born yet. And to you, I’ve been dead a hundred billion years. Is my body out there somewhere? In the ground?”

“Yes,” the Doctor nods, “I suppose it is.”

“But here we are…talking.” There are tears in her eyes as she turns back to the Doctor. The redhead feels her heart clench as she watches her human companion realize just how immortal the Doctor is, how fleeting humanity is on Earth. “So I am a ghost. To you, I’m a ghost. We’re all ghosts to you. We must be nothing.”

“No. No. You’re not that.” The Doctor rushes to reassure Charlotte. She reaches up and Charlotte wrinkles her nose. The redhead chuckles and unzips, pulls herself out of her suit. She’s got her regular getup underneath, minus the jacket. When she tries again, she’s allowed to press her hand to Charlotte’s cheek. This hasn’t been the first time she’s been shorter than a companion, but it was still unnerving. After having a male body for so long, she’s still not used to it.

“Then what are we?” Charlotte asks as the Doctor swipes her thumb over her cheek, wiping away the moisture. “What can we possibly be?”

“You, my beautiful human,” the Doctor whispers as she leans up on her tiptoes so she can press her forehead to Charlotte’s, “are the only mystery worth solving.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked the story. I love Doctor Who and wrestling, so I'm combining them.
> 
> Tomorrow: Ancient


End file.
